Soil is being depleted at a rate never before encountered on Mother Earth.

Plants can only upload minerals from the soil and if they are absent from the soil, then the plants, that make up our fruit and vegetables will be nutritionally deficient!

About 10% of the land on the planet feeds the entire population.

A 1992 Earth Summit Report stated that American soils, for example, are now 85% depleted of the essential minerals and elements conducive to growing healthy fruit and vegetables.

Considering the fact that this report was published over twenty years ago, the soil would now be considered to be useless in terms of growing healthy food.

That leaves many people in a state of undernourishment.

I suggest you look into this for yourselves, to understand the full extent of nutritional depletion in the food we buy.

Type the words : soil depletion, into your search engine and YouTube, to be surprised and shocked!

So what do we do about this problem?

Well, here at Bealtaine Cottage, the answer I have implemented over the past ten years, has been to continually mulch and build up the soil, all over the three acres of Ireland of which I am guardian.

This method uses tons of biomass, which I grow on the land, shred, then compost or spread directly onto beds.

You can see the bed I covered in cardboard, compost and shreddings last autumn.

The light material is shredded willow on cardboard for access paths.

The beds themselves will be heaped up with even more compost before planting out!

Biomass is carbon neutral and requires no shipping or transportation…it can be grown on site!

Biomass is all biologically-produced matter based in carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, so even dredging the ponds of weed will provide nutritive mass for the soil!

This pile of clippings will be shredded to produce more biomass to be added to the soil, building up a nutrient rich, resilient land!

________________________

This website is open source and free for all.

There is now a new addition to Bealtaine Cottage, called Bealtaine Cottage Good Life.

If you would like to be a part of this community, please consider joining us…

To subscribe to this Bealtaine Cottage Good Life website, a small donation of 12 euros, will add your name to the subscriber list. You will then receive the full blog as published twice each week. This amounts to 104 per year at a cost of 12 cents each!

Please note: the email associated with the Paypal account is where the subscription invitation will be sent…this is important!

Click on button below to make your subscription and once verified your name will be added and access to the site allowed.

Bill Mollison once said, “I teach self-reliance, the world’s most subversive practice. I teach people how to grow their own food, which is shockingly subversive. So, yes, it’s seditious. But it’s peaceful sedition.”

Applying design to growing makes for good permaculture.

As Ireland endures a wetter and wetter climate, constructing vegetable beds on the top of gravel helps to counteract the worst elements of flooding.

The same design principles are applied in the polytunnel.

Beds are raised and paths are lowered, allowing for good drainage on this north facing slope.

This is a Nectarine tree, under-planted with Comfrey, which is then regularly chopped and dropped throughout the growing season, thus feeding the hungry fruit tree.

It has been planted in a central area in the tunnel so as to avoid cold drafts when doors are open.

This morning sees the blossom opening at just the right time, as bees are emerging from hibernation, so it’s essential to have both doors open to receive them.

Now this is something rarely seen, but this system works very well for me…seeds are sown together in one, big, deep, polystyrene, re-cycled box.

As seeds emerge and gain strength, I gently tease them out and pot them on, leaving space behind for the next swathe of emerging seedlings.Rhubarb fills out a Spring bed, with Raspberries coming along next in seasonal line!

The Summer fruiting Rhubarb lies protected under this mound of straw…excluding light from emerging weeds.

The bed is mound shaped as every year sees more and more compost added.

And here’s the black gold…home made compost. As all of the gardens are on a north-facing slope, the tyres do not interfere with the quality of the compost, just protects the heap from the east and north weather systems…particularly cold!

Trees and bushes all play a part in the permaculture design, creating shelter and wind-breaks in this instance.

You can see one of the six bins used for compost toilet waste re-cycling tucked in on the right of the picture.

This makes great planting compost for trees!

More rain storms moving in from the west and Atlantic seaboard this morning, but the sun continues to shine!

As smoke curls up in wisps from the chimney, reminding me that a hot kettle awaits me indoors…tea!

I love the unpredictable Irish weather!

And the way everything greens up so quickly after the winter!

Have a good weekend everyone.

Blessings XXX

Bealtaine Cottage has built up a Permaculture Seed Bank.

If you want to see a list of available seeds, this link will take you there…

Mist prevails as the earth slowly heats, releasing some of the water absorbed during the wettest winter on record here in Ireland.

The air is still and birdsong echoes through the foggy dew…

The first of the seeds are now sown in a big fish box in the tunnel, made from thick, white polystyrene, once marked out for the dump but rescued and up-cycled here at Bealtaine Cottage…perfect for seeds and young plants!

There’s a digger at work on the hill of Ballyfermoyle, I hear it’s machinations echoing through the misty morning.

Young trees and bushes are being torn up and tossed aside, in an effort for land to be measured by the EU on Google Maps.

Less tree cover shows more grass and it is grassland that the EU are paying farmers here in Ireland to grow.

More grass, more meat, more export, more globalization…you know the story!

And so, the Earth is losing more habitat in a land that cannot feed it’s own people…Ireland is heavily reliant on imported food!

Another famine lurks around the corner, as monoculture food systems are the order of the day, financed and controlled by the EU bureaucrats, blinkered up to the eyeballs with bullshit!

In this land of plenty there is little food grown around this area.

EU sponsored, subsidized and pimped Monoculture prevails!

*********************************

Bealtaine Cottage has built up a Permaculture Seed Bank.

If you want to see a list of available seeds, this link will take you there…

Real Crisis in the Economy, Economic Forecasts, Economic Recovery, …the list of headlines, news and political in-fighting over the economy seems endless.

However, the figures that are collected year on year, collated and spun out to us all, regarding the state of our country’s economy, are referred to as GDP or Gross Domestic Product.

GDP is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year.

This includes trees.

Dead trees.

Only dead trees!

Trees that have been cut down and transported out of the country, or sold.

Now, imagine this…

What if living trees were included in GDP?

For, after all, a tree is of more value to us all, alive than dead!

A tree is worth $193,250…

According to Professor T.M.Das of the University of Calcutta. A tree living for 50 years will generate $31,250 worth of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, control soil erosion and increase soil fertility to the tune of $31,250, recycle $37,500 worth of water and provide a home for animals worth $31,250. This figure does not include the value of fruits, lumber or beauty derived from trees. Just another sensible reason to take care of our forests.

From Update Forestry Michigan State University

GDP is one the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy.

It represents the total dollar value of all goods produced by that country…

But, surely, the health of an economy is as much predicated on the health of it’s people, land, air and soil, as it is on exported dollar goods?

Can you begin to imagine how the inclusion of all living trees could change how we regard economic health, wealth, growth and progress?

This small step could change the world!

******************************

You can place an order for seeds harvested here at Bealtaine cottage, from the plants seen growing here…all strong and vigorous. Click on the link below that will take you to the selection available:

I’m happy to write, photograph, podcast, YouTube and Facebook on behalf of Mother Earth…it would be great if you could take a second or two to press the LIKE button, leave a comment, or even subscribe to Bealtaine Cottage Good Life…

Like this:

Sammy-Bear lies concussed by the heat from the wood burning stove! It’s a tough life being a cat at Bealtaine Cottage!

Over the past week there has been a struggle between Winter and Spring as temperatures have moved up and down the thermometer, with hard frost, heavy rain, warm nights and brilliant sun all in the mix!

The rising sun reflected in the mirror at the far end of the veranda.

The amazing light of early Spring…

Moving closer to the mirror, the rising sun looks back at me over the head of the Buddha…quite otherworldly.

This was how the Romantic Poets viewed the world…through a mirror…I understand why!

Further down the gardens, the last seed-head of the Gunnera Manicata stands tall against the storms of winter, saluting the Spring.

The ponds have remained in flood during this winter, the wettest on record since 1866 here in Ireland.

Catkins stand out against a brilliant blue sky, providing some little food for any early Bees.

The shadows of Spring are long, casting patterns and shapes on an ever-changing tapestry.

What is it that makes so many farmers and gardeners want to burn vegetative material? The same happens here in Ireland, a country with the lowest tree cover in all of Europe! This is essential for building soil, in fact is the only thing apart from erosion of rock, that actually gives us soil. Our connection to the soil is vital, for it gives us our food. Those who fail to make that connection are doomed to starvation and loss of habitat. Loss of habitat means certain death. Is this what is happening all over the Earth right now? It appears to be so. Disconnection!Earth is not a thing we live upon, but Gaia, as described by James Lovelock. Gaia is affected by everything we do, every breath we take, every loving or hateful action we do to her.The collective consciousness we inhabit is being infused by her cries…there are those who are evolved enough to hear and respond, and those who willfully lock themselves out from the trauma our planet is enduring.The latter will have to watch their step for Mother earth is angry and will not abide!I believe that we are each a part of the Divine Consciousness and dependent on every other living thing. I see this grasp of understanding, manifesting in so many people now, that it really lifts my heart! There is a fusion happening. This fusion is bringing us all together with all life, every last atom of it! For those who embrace this, there is a sense of pure joy bestowed upon us by that Consciousness.For those who continue on the path of hate and spite, dominance and abuse, there can only be fear and a deep dark corner of a dying planet. The atoms we carry within us were once part of the Milky Way, of stars long since vanished back into the Divine Consciousness. We carry Eden within us.*****************Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 110 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.There are almost 700 blogs in the archives on this site.I write, photograph and film, in a small way, to give a voice to Mother Earth.

A reading from my 1st book, “A Cottage and Three Acres.”

Blog Stats

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 36,455 other followers

Goddess-Inspired Permaculture Gardens at Bealtaine Cottage

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Contact Details

Address:

Colette O’Neill

Bealtaine cottage

Ballyfermoyle

Keadue

Boyle

County Roscommon

F52 YP74

Ireland

email: coletteoneill2010@hotmail.com

Please note, due to pressure on my time here at Bealtaine Cottage, I cannot respond to personal emails.

Bumper Sticker

Bumper Sticker

A message for our times...plant trees...just plant! A powerful message that will be seen by thousands of people! Postage and Packing Worldwide included.

€8.00

Bumper Sticker, Goddess

Bumper Sticker, Goddess

The iconic symbol of Bealtaine Cottage Goddess Permaculture...planting for ALL life and nurturing Mother Earth!
Postage and Packing Worldwide included.

€6.00

A Cottage and Three Acres

From a dilapidated, old cottage set on three acres of forlorn, abused land...my journey to create Bealtaine Cottage. Complete with 71 colour photographs! Price includes P&P to anywhere in the world!

€25.00

In Search of The Goddess Rising

Our journey back to the Mother. An exploration of the Great Goddess, from Bealtaine Cottage to the Atlantic Ocean...and all the spaces in-between. Price includes P&P to anywhere in the world!

€19.00

Bealtaine Cottage Guide to the Deep Midwinter

A little Yuletide book filled with colour photographs, recipes, reflections, lore, poetry and mirth to guide you through the wonderful days ahead.
Fifty pages of sheer delight from Bealtaine Cottage to you.
The book is fully bound and can be posted direct as a gift.
Price includes P&P worldwide.
Bealtaine Books and Maps are printed in Ireland and posted from Ireland to support the people of Ireland.

€13.00

Magical Mythical Map of Bealtaine Cottage and Environs

Beautiful hand drawn and measuring 16 X 11 cms., this map is printed on card, both sides (showing one side here). price includes P&P to anywhere in the world.

€10.00

Colette

Sitting with Mother Earth in Bealtaine Cottage Woodland Garden...the happiest place to be!